In the workplace, some injuries hurt less than the hoops employees have to jump through just to take care of themselves.

When one employee’s boss pushed for a doctor’s note to justify a swollen ankle, the note earned the employee a much longer break than if the boss had just given them off the time they requested!

Read on for the full story.

Sprained ankle, boss wanted a doctors note to pay one day of sick time now he’s paying a week.

I twisted and sprained my ankle Monday morning packing up our camp from Labor Day weekend.

Having done this a few times in the past, I didn’t want to bother to have it checked out (who wants to pay $1,000 for urgent care to tell you to rest and ice it!?

Yay America), so I went to work Tuesday.

Unfortunately, their boss wasn’t very understanding of their needs.

I got morning stuff done and explained the situation to my boss, told him I’d need to take the day because it was swollen and painful and I needed to rest and be off of it in order for it to heal.

He gets in a tizzy because, god forbid, anyone needs to miss work for anything at all ever, and snaps at me for not planning to go to the doctor.

Despite the clear injury, the boss still isn’t getting it.

Wednesday, I go in to work, still limping and still wearing improper footwear.

(I can only fit the injured foot into a Croc without unbearable pain).

The first thing the boss says is, “Don’t you think you should get that checked out? I don’t understand why you don’t want to just pay for it.”

I explain again that I’ve had this injury in the past, it’s definitely not broken, and honestly not even as swollen as it has been when I’ve done it before.

The employee is trying their best to still be a team player, but the boss’ micromanaging isn’t making it easy.

I want to be at work to keep up on things and make everyone’s job less difficult.

I would just need to take it easy for a couple days, which isn’t a problem considering I can do 90% of the job from my desk.

The 10% slack is beyond easy for everyone to pick up (especially when not being there makes them pick up 100% of it).

This gets met with more attitude, so I ask if I’ll be getting paid sick time for the day I missed yesterday.

He says no, not without a doctor’s note (you can visibly see the injury clear as day and I’m trying here, so huh!?).

So finally, the employee goes to get the note.

I’m fed up by this point, so a little later on I say okay and leave to go to the doctor’s for the note he wants so badly — knowing full well what they’ll say to treat it and that I’ll need to be off of it for 3-5 days.

After an X-ray and getting the “Yup, it’s sprained, keep doing what you’ve been doing,” I let them know my boss asked for a note for missing a day of work to rest it.

Doc asks if I want to be at work to do what I can and stay off of it as best as possible.

I said that’s what I’ve been trying to do, so I’m fine with that.I do have sick time if it would be more beneficial to be off of it for a couple days.

This turns out to work out even better for the employee than they anticipated!

She comes back with a note that I may return to work on 9/9, which would be Monday.

I took a picture and shot it over to boss man — just the photo.

The boss got what they wanted, but with unintended consequences.

He replies, “What wrong with ankle,” which I met with no response considering none is needed.

He got his note.

I just wanted a day of sick time, 8 hours. Now he’s paying me 4 days, 32 hours.

He can’t refuse a second of it.

The boss pushed for the note, so now he can’t argue with the doctor!

What did Reddit have to say?

When you get a boss who does care, you really have to hold them tight.

According to this commenter, a healthcare overhaul would definitely benefit lots of people.

At least in many cases the doctor is on the employee’s side.

The employee only asked for a single day to rest, but thanks to their boss’s stubbornness, they’re now kicking back for four!

Looks like the boss will be the one limping through the week now!

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.